In V4, pair-wise synchrony and correlations depend on the structure of the population code

In visual areas of primates, neurons activate in parallel while the animal is engaged in a behavioral task. In this study, we examine the structure of the population code while the animal performs delayed match to sample task on complex natural images. The macaque monkeys visualized two consecutive stimuli that were either the same or different, while recorded with laminar arrays across the cortical depth in cortical areas V1 and V4. We decoded correct choice behavior from neural populations of simultaneously recorded units. Utilizing decoding weights, we divide neurons in most informative and less informative, and show that most informative neurons in V4, but not in V1, are more strongly synchronized, coupled and correlated than less informative neurons. As neurons are divided in two coding pools according to their coding preference, in V4, but not in V1, spiking synchrony, coupling and correlations within the coding pool are stronger than across coding pools. Highlights